Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 1:49
Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel:
Because they were not generally to go out to war, which was the thing principally eyed in this muster, Num 1:3,20,45 but were to attend upon the service or the tabernacle, and therefore are reserved to another distinct muster, Num 3:15; 4:2, &c. And lost this should bc thought to, be designed and done through Mosess ambition to give his own tribe the pre-eminence, he assures them it was done by Gods express command.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Only thou shall not number the tribe of Levi,…. That is, along with the other tribes, for it might be numbered by itself, as it afterwards was, Nu 3:43;
neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel; which confirms what is before observed: now this being the declared will of God clears Moses from all partiality to his own tribe, he doing nothing but what he had a command of God for it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
49. Tribe of Levi This tribe, together with that of Simeon, because their founders had perpetrated the treacherous massacre of the Shechemites, (Gen 34:25-26,) were under the curse of Jacob: “I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.” Gen 49:7. Simeon was greatly reduced in number in the wilderness, and received a small portion in Canaan adjoining Judah, but was soon scattered in the cities of this stronger tribe. Levi was forbidden a portion of the Land of Promise except forty-eight cities in the other tribes, and was appointed to the charge of the tabernacle instead of the firstborn, who were sacred to Jehovah because they had been sanctified by the Lord, and spared when the destroyer slew the firstborn of the Egyptians. A branch of this family, the house of Aaron, became the priestly family, and the rest of the tribe, under the technical designation of Levites, were set apart to the menial services of the tabernacle, such as pitching, taking down, and transporting the sacred tent and its furniture. The curse of dispersion pronounced on Levi was thus converted into a blessing, 1,) because of the conspicuous faithfulness of Moses and Aaron, members of this tribe; and 2,) because of the commendable zeal for God of the whole tribe in the case of the golden calf. Exo 32:16. Every ancestral curse may be mitigated or changed into a blessing by the obedience of posterity to the Divine law. “But where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” Rom 5:20.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 2:33, Num 26:62
Reciprocal: Num 3:6 – General Num 8:11 – they may execute
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 1:49. Levi Because they were not generally to go out to war, which was the thing principally eyed in this muster, (Num 1:3; Num 1:20; Num 1:45,) but were to attend upon the service of the tabernacle. They that minister upon holy things, should not entangle themselves in secular affairs. The ministry itself is work enough for a whole man, and all little enough to be employed in it.